Protection of women in prison under the European Convention on Human Rights

Summary

INTRODUCTION

With the passage of time the European Convention on Human Rights, has evolved into the most important European treaty protecting the rights of prisoners. While the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 1987 offers mainly a preventive mechanism, the ECHR provides inmates with the legal measure of addressing various violations of human rights that have occurred in the course of incarceration. Thus far, an individual complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has been an accessible tool of protection of the rights of prisoners. Unfortunately the latest changes to the Rules of the Court may limit their access to the ECtHR. Inmates are in particularly vulnerable situation, and the new formal requirements for an individual complaint, provided in Rule 47 of the Rules of the Court, can significantly hamper their ability to initiate proceedings before the Court in Strasbourg.

All inmates, including female inmates, may rely on various provisions of the ECHR. In particular, they may invoke Articles 2, 3, 8 and 12 of the Convention. Typical complaints brought by inmates under the ECHR will be discussed in section 2 of this chapter, with particular emphasis on violations that may concern female inmates. Violations of the gender-specific rights of female prisoners can be the subject of complaints before the ECtHR under the material provisions of the ECHR in conjunction with its Article 14, proclaiming the principle of non-discrimination. Examples of the use of the non-discrimination clause in cases concerning prisoners will be provided in section 3 below. Furthermore, the ECtHR may rely in its judgments on the standards of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and also on other sources of soft international law. Female convicts may invoke the Bangkok Rules, in their individual complaints to the ECtHR, as a supporting argument. The convergence of international standards applied to inmates, and the influence of those standards on the case law of the ECtHR, will be mentioned in section 4 of the chapter.